Just a report on changing the ATF. I remove the pan an found not too much comtaminates in the pan.
Found the magnet full of black crud and found the gasket in good useable shape.
Could not see anything in the filter and it looked good to me butdid change it and after cleaning the magnet put everthing back together and all is well. The job is a piece of cake but watch for the hot fluid.
One thing I found the fluid seem to be a bit dark and was not noticeble on the dipstick before.
I suppose that is why Ford recommends flushing all the fluid but I would think they should also change the filter and clean the magnet. One last thing when you clean the magnet it goes back on the indentation in the oil pan.

 

Jakers, were you suprised by the amount of crud in and onthe tranny pan and magnet for the miles?Even thoughthe MERCON-Vis a synthetic, FORD farms it's supply production out to the lowest bidder. The low mileage color change is caused by oxidation and the"Minimum spec'd"base stocks varnishing due to heat/load stress. All this reduces its shear strength and leads to excessive wear and infant mortality on these trannies. It's amazing how many people fail to do regular maintainence and then wonder why it broke. The amount of new fluid added back into the tranny with just the"PAN DROP" replentishes more than enough load/shear stability, anti-wearand anti-foaming additives for additional trouble free miles.

 

Yes I was a bit surprised asI only had less than 60.000 miles on the van and I knew it had the proper maintainance done, oil changes etc.
I still find it odd that Ford does not recommend a filter change, I am planning to do another pan and filter jobat about 100.000 miles (160.000 K's)
The gasket was still plyable so I used it again but will get a new one next time, have not enquired about any other filter and gasket set but will look into it and see if anything else than Ford is available.
One question I wanted to ask you is about the size tires you are using, my original Freestar Sport size is 235-60-16 and noticed regular Freestar size is 225-60-16. Does the 75 series tires not give you a rougher ride? Ichecked withGood-Year and the dealer told me the 235 was less money than the 225 tires. Also checed Kal-tires and they advised Falken tires which have a very good customer comments.
Have a great day. Jake

 

Jakers, I actually have a better ride with the 225-75-16's than the stock 235-60-16's. Since the height of the OEM tire sidewalls are designed into the suspension, the taller sidewall provides a softer ride than the lower sidewalls do. Also, I don't run the factory spec'd 36PSI in the tires. I pattern my tires so that they run flat across the whole tread. The HANKOOK HPW401's that I run have 42PSI in the front tires and 40PSI in the rear. If I ran the factory spec'd 36PSI, the tires would have had the outer edged eaten away long ago. I also run snow tires year around. There are several benefits to doing this.

1. Softer compound tire grips better in all weather conditions.
2. More siping reduce the distance needed for braking on wet and icy roads.
3. More siping effectively not only increases tire life but will result in a smoother ride.
4. Tires don't get traction from the tread block, but from the edges griping the road surface, thus siping improves traction by providing more traction edges.
5. Reduces heat build up in the tire by providingmore edges forairflow cooling
6. Provides better resistance to hydroplaning as a snow tire has larger tread grooves and outer bead grooves.
7. May wear out sooner, but are cost efficient.

This should be enough for now.

 

Scott.
I can see how you get better milage with the skinnier tires but with the pressure you are running I do not think the ride would be much better. For sure the roadholding would not be that good but I think you place a lot of value on milage however I place more value on ride and roadholding. Today had went to the Good-Year dealer and got a price on Assurance Comforttread size 235/60/16 and it looks like a good tire so Imight go with them.

 

Jakers, Just a little finger rambling on the keyboard...

The tires I run are not much "SKINNIER" than the OEM tire. About 1/2 " in tread width. A snow tire will normally always produce less MPG as they have a higher rolling resistance. I will always sacrifice MPG for better traction. The ride is better due to the higher sidewall. Handling with the tires I am useing is also better as they "STICK" to the road. I actually have less cornering drift with the HANKOOK HPW401's that I am running than what I did with the GOODYEAR INTEGITY's. The Goodyear Assurance ComforTred are twice the price I paid for my Hankooks. I just rolled 41,200 miles on the van from a trip to Dayton, OH this week-end. That places a little over 38,000 miles on the Hankooks. They started with 13.5/32nd of tread depth and still average 11.5-12/32nd left on all 4 tires. That's only a about a 15% tread wear. The only experience that I had with the Goodyear ComforTred is with my Son's 2005 Pontial Boneville. He had to replace 2 tires due to flats. Both tires failed in the sidewalls as the sidewalls weresoft and mushy. These were the original tires with only 32,000 miles on the vehicle. Spent about 6 hours over 2 days fighting with Goodyear to replace the other 2 tires that were in the same condition. The sidewalls that failed were the inside sidewalls. Looking at the Goodyear web page, the ComforTred has the same rating that the Integrity's had. Now the Integrity's have actually been de-rated by Goodyear (after they sold a zillion of them to the OEM's). However, we each have our own opinion and reason for why we do whatt we do. I hope the tires you select work great for you and keep you safe on the highway.

 

Hi Scott.
The GY ComforTread seem to have a good rating on the "Tire Rack" site and mentioned the low road noise and not much on milage etc.
I am inclined to go with Falken tires but I found that even WallyMart claims their tires are the best so it is hard to sort the different brands.
I still have the original GY tires on the van and at 60.000 miles still not down to the wear strip but will make I hope an intelligentchoice on the next set, they will be 225-235/60/16 as I see it now.
Have a great day. Jake

 

Jakers,
FALKEN tires are also a good tire. I was looking at and almost bought them before I found the HANKOOK tires. Since Hankook doesn't make 16" HPW401 for the US anymore, I'll probably go with their ICEBEAR W300's. I personally have not had good luck with GOODYEAR tires on other vehicles I have owned in the past, thus I stay away from them. Same thing with MICHELAN tires, however I was impressed with the MICHELAN LTX M/S tires I had on my 2001 Explorer Sport.

 

Hey, new poster...sent you an email also.

I see you have water injection.. My father messed with that back in the early 80's

Anyway, I just bought a freestar and I want to do a tranny fluid and filter change ASAP as it has 71,000 miles on it right now.

Looking at the motor it looks like everything is brand new...seriously, stickers are still present and everything but underneath you can see a SLIGHT leakage out of the tranny pan...it doesn't even leave any on the ground but you can see wetness.

How many quarts does it take to do this? I know it is 14 for a total fill but that would include draining the torque converter.

thanks

 

A fluid and filter change by dropping the pan only will net about 8 quarts of used fluid. I have two 2.5 gallon AMSOIL containers that I use for tranny filter/fluid change. I pour the used fluid in one and new fluid in the other to the same level as the old. I didn't do a torque converter fluid change. My main concern was changing the filter and cleaning the pan. The 8 quarts of new AMSOIL helps greatly by replenishing required additives and gave me a 50% fluid change. Most tranny seating and wear should have been completed by the 31,000 miles when I changed my fluid. Thus, when I hit 50,000 this summer, I am going to do a tranny flush only with AMSOIL for a 100% fluid change. At 100,000 miles I will do a filter and pan change only.

Some more rambling that may or may not make sense. Basically my observations and conclusions over the years...

The main issue with the tranny is HEAT. The Taurus with the 3.0 DOHC uses the same tranny as our Freestar. The Taurus has a 75,000 tranny fluid change spec. The reason between the two is that the DOHC 3.0 is a FWD engine and the 3.8, 3.9 and 4.2 are RWD engine that have the cooling system flowing in reverse direction. This causes the rear cylinders to run hotter causing more heat exposure to the tranny and fluid. The head gasket problem with the 3.8 was with FRD vehicles only (Taurus, Sable and Windstar). I personally have never seen the head gasket problem on a Mid-Sized LTD, Mustang or Thunderbird. I have probably done about 70 head gasket jobs over the years replaced to the 3.8L.